Friday, April 25, 2003

Oops

Oh well.

I had a good talk with Boss Sunshine about my departure. He's willing to pay me through June, and isn't too concerned about how much time I spend in the office between now and then. (Hellooooo, Fort Lauderdale! Helloooo, San Diego!) That left me sort of juiced about this whole moving to Bucks County thing. So, I decided to take a risk and jump the gun and give a call to my Dad, asking him how he would feel about me moving into the tenant house next door to him. I closed the door to my office to make the phone call.

The phone call went well. He would be thrilled to have me. I didn't get him to commit to rent free. That will be another conversation, and my Dad can be weird about money. Comes from being raised in the Depression.

After I got off the phone, Staffella and Staffetta had a conversation. I could clearly hear every word.

So I guess the cat is out of the bag. Which is not the worse thing that could happen. And fits in well with the "Official Reason" I'm leaving ( ...to spend more time with my family. Isn't that an appropriate political swansong.)

Anyway, Boss Sunshine said he'd be happy to sing my praises when it comes to looking for a job in Bucks County, and he said that if it would be possible for me to collect unemployment in Pennsylvania, he'd be willing to tell them that the reason for leaving was 'internal reorganization' or one of those Unemployment-collectable reasons.

So, it seems that I'm retiring to the country. For the time being.

I wonder how my brother is going to react. There's an odd aspect to my relationship with my brother. He was born in 1949, and my sister was born in 1951. They both grew up together. I was unplanned. Totally. I came along in 1964, when my sister was thirteen and my brother was fifteen. Then, when they were 18 and 20, our mother died. So my Dad lavished a lot of attention on me when I was growing up that had been divided between the two of them. Also, my mother had been a strict disciplinarian, so there was a lot that I was permitted to do that they weren't. So there's some jealousy going on. ("Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!!!")

I think my brother compensates for this by doing his damndest to be The Good Son. Always there, always reliable, always dependable. And, the more he feels me to be the recipient of undeserving approval, it just gauls him.

Since my parents' health situation took a turn for the worse, he's been there big time. And he views with disdain the fact that I've pretty much stayed away. Now that I'm usurping his role of caretaker (and honestly, I'm not. That's why my parents have home healthcare and a home attendant that comes as often as they need it), I could see that things might get tense.

Or not. I like my brother a lot, and he likes me. Since my sister died, we've gotten on pretty well.


Oh. As I mentioned, the house is a two bedroom. There's a little bedroom and a big bedroom. The little bedroom will be where my bed goes, and the big bedroom will be the dungeon. Not much of a dungeon. It's a large bright sunny room at the front of the house. I'll need to get some good heavy curtains.

If indeed there are local men to whip, I'll be ready for them.

I guess I'd better get a lock for that door, too. Not that my parents will be over there a lot, but when they are, I think that might be a little much for them to take. Or, maybe not. My step mother won't remember it two minutes after she saw it, and my father can usually be a reasonable person. If he was able to come to terms when I got a mohawk, almost flunked out of highschool, pierced my ear, got a tattoo, told him I was gay, met my partner and allowed us to sleep in the same bed when we stayed over, and all the rest of it, I very much doubt that he's gonna be freaked out to learn that I enjoy whipping men who enjoy getting whipped. There ought to be something like PFLAG for people into kink.

I am totally going to suggest that the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (or somebody) do something along the lines of a National Coming Out Day for kinksters. The idea behind National Coming Out Day (October 11th, I believe) is that for lesbian and gay folks, you use that day to tell someone who doesn't already know that you're gay. Or lesbian, as the case may be. It makes a personal issue into a political issue, and rightly so. To a large degree, the increases in acceptance of homosexuality over the past three decades have been the result of more and more people knowing someone whom they like or love, and who they also discover is gay: "Well, Bob is such a nice guy, and he sings in the church choir with me. I like him a lot. I think it would be bad if he lost his job because he's gay."

So it would be a good thing in terms of society's acceptance of people into safe, sane, and consensual S/M if more people went public about what they do. Hmmm. Something to think about.

Oh. One more thing. With everything going on and my life in major transition, this would not be the good time to take part in the Mr. Northeast Leather Sir contest, regardless of the benefits and drawbacks of doing such a thing.


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